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| U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee seeking further sanctions on Iran |
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 TEHRAN – In a show of bipartisan consensus, all but one member of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee signed a letter to President Obama on Monday calling for him to increase pressure on Iran to persuade it to curb its nuclear program, the Washington Times reported.
“Our diplomatic goal must be to reach a negotiated settlement in which Iran agrees to verifiably dismantle its nuclear weapons program,” states the letter, signed by all of the committee’s Republicans and all but one of its Democrats. “For this outcome to be realized, Iran must face intensifying pressure.”
The nuclear program has the Obama administration and its allies at an impasse with Iran, who insists that the program is peaceful and not aimed at developing weapons.
As a signatory to the non-proliferation regime NPT, Iran has legal right to develop nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.
The House members who wrote to Mr. Obama on Monday, however, pointed to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency — the top nuclear watchdog group for the United Nations — which cited an acceleration in Iran’s nuclear activities.
“Tehran is dramatically expanding its nuclear infrastructure: installing advanced centrifuges which would quadruple the speed with which Iran can enrich uranium, while continuing construction of a heavy water reactor which will permit a plutonium option,” they wrote.
The Obama administration has won praise from both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill for leading a global embargo on Iranian crude oil and for imposing sanctions on the nation’s banking and automotive sectors.
But Monday’s letter sheds light on the growing number of Democrats now onboard with what had been predominantly a Republican effort.
The letter also notably arrives on the heels of Iran’s presidential election.
Some foreign policy analysts have argued that President-elect Hassan Rouhani is more moderate than outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and, as a result, more likely to negotiate with the U.S. and other Western powers toward a peaceful settlement of the Iranian nuclear program.
Foreign Affairs Committee members appeared eager to quash such assessments on Monday.
“Iran’s election unfortunately has done nothing to suggest a reversal of Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear weapons capacity,” the lawmakers claimed. “Moreover, decisions about Iran’s nuclear program and foreign policy rest mainly in the hands of Iran’s Supreme Leader (Ayatollah Ali Khamenei).”
The committee praised the White House for issuing an executive order last month that expanded sanctions on Iran to begin targeting the nation’s automotive and banking industry, but said Mr. Obama would be wise to “increase the pressure on Iran in the days ahead.”
“An added positive action would be extending sector-based sanctions to the mining, engineering, and construction-based sectors of Iran,” the lawmakers wrote. “We plan to strengthen sanctions with additional legislation already approved unanimously by the Committee on Foreign Affairs and now pending in the House of Representatives.”
Delegate Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, American Samoa Democrat, was the only member of the committee who did not sign the letter.
EP/PA
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